Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The views expressed in
this email and blog are those of the individuals whose name is attached to the
posting. They do not represent a collective position of the WLG or the Labour
Party

Dear
Comrades

As usual, we’ve
tried to pull together some interesting sources for this email and blog, which
you can access at any time using the web here. The discussion piece this week is more of a strong argument
for all socialists to prioritise getting as many people as possible to the TUC’s
national demonstration in London on 20 October. Don’t
forget, if you have any information and you think it is the sort of thing that
would fit the ethos of the blog and email, send it to us to circulate and post;
if you wish to comment please feel free to do so on the blog; and if you are a
WLG member, please submit posts.

WLG AGM and other
forthcoming events

The WLG annual conference and AGM will be taking place at the Welsh Institute
of Sport, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Saturday, 27th October. The theme will be
‘Austerity and Public Services’ and the speakers will include Mark Drakeford AM. There will be a roundtable
discussion about the challenges facing Labour councillors, which will include
Cllrs. Siobhan Corria (Cardiff), Gareth Phillips (Bridgend), Jessica Powell
(Torfaen) and Mark Whitcutt (Newport). At 2.00 p.m., we will be having a joint
session with the Socialist Educational Association, addressed by Cllr. Julia
Magill, Cardiff Council cabinet member for education. Please send any motions for debate to darren.s.williams@hotmail.co.uk
by 12.00 noon on Friday, 19th October and also any nominations (including
self-nominations) for election to the steering committee (chair, vice-chair,
secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, & nine ordinary members) or as
one of our two auditors. Some of
us will be going for a drink and a meal after the meeting – all comrades are welcome
to come along.

The final WLG meeting of the year will take place on Saturday, 1st
December in County Hall, Swansea and our guest speaker will be Mark Seddon,
former Labour NEC member and editor of Tribune.

Other events:

On Thursday
27 September, Wales Progressive Co-operators will be
holding a pre-meeting for a
proposedCo-operative Care
Development Forum
between 1.00 and 4.00 pm at Cartrefi Cymru 5 Coopers Yard, Curran Road, Cardiff
CF10 5NB. Contact David Smith on 01633 266781 for details.

On Thursday, 4th October, the PCS general secretary, Mark
Serwotka, will be speaking at two public meetings. Please note that the first of these two meetings has had to be postponed. The first has been organised
by PCS and will take place in the Temple of Peace Edward VII Avenue, Cathays
Park, Cardiff between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm (free entry – all welcome). In the
evening, Mark will be giving the S.O. Davies Memorial Lecture, organised by
Merthyr Tydfil Trades Council, at 7.00 pm at Canolfan Soar, Pontmorlais,
Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8UB (300 yards from bus and rail stations). There will also
be refreshments, live music and a photographic display. Tickets are £2 from
Margaret Davies, tel: 07989 791179.

On Monday, 8th October there will be a UNA/Amnesty International public meeting:
Yolanda Foster (Amnesty South Asia Desk) on ‘Human Rights in Sri Lanka’. 7.00pm, Temple of Peace, Edward VII
Avenue, Cathays Park, Cardiff. Free entry – all welcome.

On Thursday, 11th October, the World
Development Movement Cardiff group will be presenting a free showing of the film, The Yes Men Fix
the World, about two
political activists/pranksters who lie their way into big business conferences by
posing as corporate executives. 7.30pm at The Gate, Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff CF24 3JW (meet in the Café
Bar from 7.00pm).

On
Tuesday,16th October, CND Cymru will be holding an anti-Trident demo on the
steps of the Senedd, Cardiff Bay from 12.00 noon with speakers including Mark
Drakeford AM.

London
Saturday 20th October must be in every member’s diary to get themselves,
family, friends, brothers, sisters, comrades up to London for the TUC ‘A Future
That Works’ demonstration. Everyone who wishes to see an end to this Tory
government should attend and False Economy has details of transport from Wales here. Here is a link to the Coalition of Resistance leaflets with
posters supporting the demonstration and the TUC has also produced a number of statements from people about why
they are marching.

This
resolution supporting the march was passed at the Pontypridd SW branch meeting
last week and other branches may wish to take it up:

‘Pontypridd
SW Labour Party branch fully supports the aims and objectives of the 20 October
London TUC march for ‘A Future That Works’. The march provides an opportunity
to oppose the attacks on the working class being pursued by the Tory government
and to show our support for alternative policies that would ensure that we do
not pay for the bankers’ crisis. The branch will communicate with every member
providing them with information about the purpose of the march, together with
details of transport and urge them to attend along with all their families and
friends.

Further, the branch will place
the same motion to the Pontypridd CLP for the meeting on Friday 21 September,
committing the constituency to provide the same information and call to all
members, together with an instruction to all other PCLP branches to support the
call and work to do all they can to ensure that members, friends and families
support the march.

As a follow up to the march the
branch will keep in contact with the TUC and other bodies that are coordinating
an on-going campaign against the policies of this Tory government so as to
ensure, as far as possible, that local Labour Party members can support and
have every opportunity for joining in these campaigns.’

Left Week –
Len Arthur

Owen Jones
in his bookChavs
traces the background to the demonization of the working class, rooting it
in Thatcherism, the defeat of the trade unions and increased inequality. During
the last week we have witnessed how deep this view is amongst the rich of the
world. Usually, they keep their class hatred and their belief in continued
class war under wraps, so they can dismiss it all as the ‘politics of envy’,
but clearly they are feeling the heat and letting their guard slip. Tory Chief
Whip Andrew Mitchell revealed what he thought of public sector workers in his
much publicised outburst, using language that would have attracted an arrest in
another situation. In the US, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney let
slip that the 47% (actually nearer 46%) who do not pay Federal taxes – but of
course pay many other kinds of taxes – were not worthy of his representation.
Then of course Michael Gove, secretary of state for education in England
announced, in official language, an exam system that is aimed at raising the
barrier against working class children leaving school with qualifications. I’m
sure the term sorting the ‘wheat from the chaff’ is used in the bar of the Tory
clubs. Being challenged by Leighton Andrews, our Welsh Government education
minister over the downgrading of this years’ GCSE results, has rattled his cage
and class fury!

The Stop
the War Coalition
has produced an email newsletter, most of which can be accessed on their
website, dealing with the appalling level of troop deaths. Three British
soldiers were killed last week and the current rate of US troop deaths is
running at one a day. It points out the futility of the war in Afghanistan and
argues there should be a complete withdrawal of troops by the end of this year.
It goes on to support Paul Flynn, who accused the Tory minister of lying
in the Commons and
was promptly thrown out for a week. Also included are details of demonstrations
around the UK and a petition that we can all sign now.

A trade
union weekly news update is produced by the union Unite with
lots of useful links; worth keeping an eye on.

Left Roundup

Michael
Roberts maintains a superb socialist and Marxist commentary on what is
happening in the global economy. Here he openly and, to an extent
speculatively, looks at whether capitalism is facing a breakdown that it will
be very difficult to recover from. And here, he critically evaluates Ed Miliband’s
case for a ‘responsible capitalism’. For a more specific perspective on the
increasingly dominant power of US corporations and how they contribute to the
economic crisis, here is an article by US socialist Jack
Rasmus. Incidentally, this last article is from what is essentially a socialist
international cooperative social networking site called Z Communications which you may like to join and support.

The Hope not
Hate campaign against the fascists and racists in the UK has produced an analysis of what is now happening with the
extreme right and here are the details of the Unite Against Fascism website. The
extreme right may seem to be in some disarray, but it is important to remember
just how deep their arguments can sit within peoples’ consciousness, regularly
given succour by the right wing press such as the Daily Mail. Both at a personal and an organised level it is
critical for us as socialists to challenge their dangerous, divisive and
inhuman politics.

Left Futures provides an analysis of how many
people the Atos ‘assessment’ process could be seen to have been killed by the
application of their systems. The information provides a good source of
evidence to counter the ‘scrounger’ myths and the need to continue to campaign
to support disabled people.

Eoin Clarke
on his Green Benches blog, has been
digging around in the data again and produced evidence of top Tory donors who have
interests that will benefit from the outsourcing and privatisation now taking
place in the NHS.

Labour Party

The UK
Labour Party website is here. You may have read in the press that
Ed Miliband suggested that the next Labour Government should adopt the aim to
have a decarbonised power supply in the UK by 2030. It was not a speech but an
article written for the Green Alliance
which I’ve tracked down here. The suggestion has been well
received but, like all these targets, how to we get it to stick and is it
sufficient, given the current rate of climate change?

UK Labour
policy debates are now reaching a critical pre-conference stage.Left
Futures blog has identified some mixed messages with policy documents coming too late for member consideration and
comment, yet it may be possible to detect some radical thinking about Trident. Sometimes these
arguments about internal Party democracy and policy can seem like navel gazing,
but they are vitally important and should be taken very seriously indeed, if we
are to be able to campaign for socialist policies at the next general election.

The Welsh
Labour website is here. For us in Wales at the moment there
is the question of campaigning and voting in the police commission elections.
It is very difficult to drum up enthusiasm for a policy that first surfaced as
a UKIP one in 2005! However, the power that these people will hold will be
extensive and largely beyond the weak democratic control that currently exists.
A low turnout could deliver this power to some very right-wing candidates: a
frightening prospect. Should we on the left take these elections more
seriously?

Finally,
taking forward some of the points made in our discussion about WLG principles and
priorities that we started in the last email and blog, Owen Jones wrote in the Independent this week, what can best
be described as an appeal to Labour councillors during the next budget round to
join the active fightback against this Tory government.

Probably,
like many of you, I’ve been on many marches and demonstrations. One of my first,
was the last day of the CND Aldermaston march in 1961, which ended with the Committee of 100 sit down in Trafalgar Square. It was
my one and only close encounter with Bertrand Russell! More importantly, it set
the scene for ever more effective demonstrations during the 1960s. Perhaps the
most tragic demonstration, was the day in 1979 at Grunwick’s where the TUC mobilised a solidarity
picket which we were winning, then everyone was marched off to a meeting,
letting the scabs’ bus through. Similarly tragic, but in a different way, was
the indifference with which our own Labour Government met the 1 million that
marched against the Iraq war. The action of every single person who was on that
march has been subsequently justified by the horror and illegality of the
events that have followed.

So will the
TUC demonstration ‘march for the future’ on the 20th October be the start of a
historic trend, or another tragic lost opportunity? The answer, as ever, lies
in our hands, in our ability to mobilise just about everyone we know and more,
to get up to London. In the UK, just as in every other country where the state
has stepped in to bail out their bankers, the working class is being forced to
pay the cost of the crisis. We haven’t yet experienced the barbarism that has been
meted out to the workers of Greece, or that is constantly suffered by the poor
or undefended workers in developing countries, but that is where the Tories are
driving the weakest in our society and where they would like us all to be, in
the very near future. Essentially, as argued in earlier blogs, capitalism will
survive if the working class can be forced to the pay the cost: we have it in
our power to stop them.

With the
decision of the TUC to consider the possibility of a general strike and
individual unions, together with other organisations, preparing at a rank and
file and community level, the political conditions can be seen to be moving
into place where it could be possible to unite all parts of the working class, to
mobilise to bring this government down. We should have no qualms about arguing
this case as we did not elect this Tory government: they lack democratic
legitimacy both as the coalition has been imposed upon us and key elements of
their manifestos and election pledges have been revealed as lies. In short, it
could be argued that we have experienced a neo-liberal coup d’état.As socialists, our political priority should
be to work in solidarity with all who can see the dangers that the Tories
represent, toward achieving this end.

Here are
some of the reasons that we should aim to have over 1m people on the march:

1.Everyone who relies, would like to rely,
or who has relied on selling their labour to survive – the working class – is
being affected by the Tory attacks. Those who depend on the support of the
state, particular the weakest, are having their benefits removed, capped or
reduced and are being denigrated and hounded by the state and the Tory gutter
press. The demonization of the working class, so well documented by Owen Jones is having the intended effect of
dividing us, as a recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Trust has
indicated. The 20th October can demonstrate that we stand together
and do not accept these cruel attacks, which are not acceptable in a society
that seeks to describe itself as civilised.

2.Unemployment is a horror that not
only locks people out from an income, but wastes and undermines their ability
to make a meaningful contribution. The much-adjusted official unemployment
figures do not provide a real indication of the extent of this unacceptable
experience. The TUC has estimated that the real unemployment figure is 6.3m and in addition another 3.3m are underemployed. UK Unemployment for those in the 16
– 24 age group is running at 21.6% according to official figures. What is revealed by these figures, is that 1/3 of
the employed population of around 29m is experiencing unemployment or under-employment.
No wonder fear stalks the land.

3.For those in work, the attacks are
unremitting. Pay freezes coupled with price rises means that for most, real
wages and family incomes have been falling for the past 7 years. Use this frightening indicator from the Guardian to discover just
how low and unequal family incomes are in the UK: you will be shocked. Pensions
– in effect, saved wages - are being stolen and young people in work face
working to nearly 70 to save sufficiently to retire, if even then. The threat
of job loss means that fear stalks the workplace and the Tories intend to make
it worse, by removing even the protection of health and safety legislation.

4.The UK is a rich society: so rich that
the deficit is not a problem and could be sorted within a year, with all of us
benefitting. However the UK does not seem to be a rich society, as that wealth
is so unequally distributed, and becoming more so. Stewart Lansley’s work and that of Richard Wilkinson and Kate
Pickett document the current situation and the dangerous adverse consequences.
Moreover, business is on general strike, holding back around £750bn in cash
that could be invested. Not only can we afford all of our public services, we in
fact have the money to bring them up to the best standards: it is just in the
wrong hands and used for useless speculative purposes. False Economy has
documented all the arguments against the current economic policies, we have
covered them in the earlier blogs and there are many plan ‘B’s.

We
can orientate the economy to work for people and the planet and not for profit.
The answers are possible, we know what they are and we know what we can all do
to make them come into being. What is needed is the political confidence and
boldness to make the alternative happen. This is why the 20th
October is of critical importance. The Tories have run out of options to save
their system, other than attack us; the working class. We have the power to
stop them and go on to put make our socialist solutions into a realty. By
making sure over a million are on the streets, we demonstrate our power and,
moreover, we link in solidarity with the workers in the EU and across the world
who are fighting back. Within the Labour Party, we can demonstrate to the right
that New Labour is dead, that the active working-class political base exists to
argue the case that socialism and democracy, provide an answer.

Monday, September 17, 2012

The views expressed in this email and
blog are those of the individuals whose name is attached to the posting. They
do not represent a collective position of the WLG or the Labour Party.

Dear Comrade

This is the
fifth of our (just about) weekly email bulletins, which are also posted on our blog; thanks for the
comments on the first four. Darren has produced a short discussion paper
re-affirming our political principles and setting priorities for the coming
months and this is the main part of the discussion section this week. Comments
made by members at last Saturday’s meeting are also in the section, together
with a piece from Len. Members are asked to contribute to this debate leading
up to the AGM.

Don’t
forget, if you have any information and you think it is the sort of thing that
would fit the ethos of the blog and email, send it to us to circulate and post;
if you wish to comment please feel free to do so on the blog; and if you are a
WLG member, please submit posts. Just to make the point, the piece on
Llansamlet should have referred to Jenny Rathbone MP for Cardiff Central and
not Jenny Randerson!

Report of the Welsh Labour Grassroots
meeting 8.09.2102

WLG met on Saturday (8
September) in Newport Centre, with comrades present from Cardiff, Swansea and
Newport itself. John Griffiths, AM for Newport East and Environment Minister in
the Welsh Government, kicked off the meeting with a lively and wide-ranging
assessment of recent developments at the Assembly and some of the challenges
facing Welsh Labour in the near future. He said that the argument over
devolution itself had been settled and the question was now about the kind of
policies that Wales’ government could deliver. Welsh Labour was, of course, in
a difficult situation because of the cuts imposed by the Westminster coalition,
which meant it had to find ways of achieving its aims with depleted resources.
Its lack of an overall majority also made it frequently necessary to seek an
accommodation with either Plaid or the Lib Dems. The Assembly’s newly-won
capacity to pass its own legislation was also a challenge; John had recently
been to Edinburgh to learn from the Scottish experience. Labour’s aspirations
for Wales combined economic recovery with progress in education – where there
had been notable successes but also some setbacks - and in health, where it was
seeking to address long-standing inequalities. Overall, the aim was a fairer,
more equal Wales and a general improvement in people’s quality of life.

John answered questions
on Wales’ capacity in public service management; the question of tax-raising
powers; the challenge from Plaid under its new leader; the possibility of
coalition; the influence of the Scottish independence question; Carwyn’s faux
pas over Trident; the media’s misrepresentation of the Welsh government’s
record; and the need for greater collaboration in local government. He took a
positive view of the potential for further expansion of the Assembly’s powers,
argued that the best way to deal with the Plaid challenge was to strengthen
Labour’s commitment to a socialist platform and felt that the media’s neglect
of the devolved government’s record might be offset, to a degree, by the
readiness of Ed Miliband and Owen Smith to acknowledge the achievements of the
Welsh model.

Darren circulated, and
commented on, a short discussion paper that sought to reaffirm WLG’s political
principles and set out some priorities for the coming months (this follows in
the discussion section below, together with some other contributions). The idea
was to stimulate some discussion and thereby better inform the decisions that
would need to be made at the AGM.

A discussion followed,
with some initial responses to the paper. Further comments from comrades,
either on the blog, or by responding to this email, are encouraged.

WLG AGM and other forthcoming events

The WLG
annual general meeting will be taking place at the Welsh Institute of Sport, Sophia Gardens,
Cardiff on Saturday, 27th October.The
theme will be ‘austerity and public services’ and the speakers will include Mark
Drakeford AM. In the afternoon,
we will be having a joint session with the Socialist Educational Association,
addressed by Cllr. Julia Magill, Cardiff Council cabinet member for education.

On Thursday,
4th October, the PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, will be giving the S.O.
Davies Memorial Lecture, organised by Merthyr Tydfil Trades Council, at 7.00 pm
at Canolfan Soar, Pontmorlais, Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8UB (300 yards from bus and
rail stations). There will also be refreshments, live music and a photographic
display. Tickets are £2 from Margaret Davies, tel: 07989 791179.

London
Saturday 20th October must be in every member’s diary to get themselves,
family, friends, brothers, sisters, comrades up to London for the TUC ‘A Future
That Works’ demonstration. Everyone who wishes to see an end to this Tory
government should attend and False Economy has details of transport here. Here also is a link to the
Coalition of Resistance leaflets and posters supporting the demonstration.

Left Week – Len Arthur

Ed Miliband
gave an important speech
at the Stock Exchange a week ago, where he rightly attacked the pathetic
weakness of the Tories’ ‘growth’ policies and in addition, made significant
references to the failed economic consensus paradigms that have influenced
policy since the Second World War. ‘Predistribution’ was the word he developed
in the speech, which caught the eye of the press. His argument, basically, is
that redistribution of wealth through the tax system is not sufficient, so
policy attention has also to give weight to higher real wages which, in turn,
are a key element to raise effective demand in the economy.

As in our
first discussion piece, this moves some way toward the issues raised by radical
Keynesians such as Stewart Lansley. However, Ed Miliband placed this emphasis
in the context of a continuing tight public spending budget, so shifting the
emphasis away from the role of the state in redistribution. He also referred to
ideas of human capital, such as raising skill levels, as methods of achieving
real wage growth - not improving the collective bargaining strength of trade
unions through, for example, removing the legal restriction on taking
industrial action. Yet again, Ed Miliband appears to open one ‘left’ door, only
to close another.

TUC Congress
is not usually these days noted for history making, but last week’s may have
accomplished just that. A key decision was made
to explore the practicalities of supporting a general strike in connection with
the discussion about the 20 October demonstration. Work will now start
exploring this possibility, meaningfully opening the door for socialists to
take the argument about how this is a critical part of ending this unelected
Tory government, to all trade union members. In a little noted article in the New Statesman – not yet available on the
web - the new general secretary of the TUC, Frances O’Grady argues that the
current priority of UK trade unions is ‘seeking to boost the scope of
collective bargaining’. This may not sound significant; it is, however, as, if
it is seriously meant, it marks a real break with the ‘service only’ view of
trade unions, amounting to a step toward organising and mobilising industrial
action.

Left Roundup

Michael
Roberts sustains his devastating critique of the limitations of printing money
as an economic policy here.
Bradley Manning’s trial continues and the press continue to blank it, which has
led to protests
in the US. Bradley’s connection to Wales should be a reason for the Welsh
Government to support him: can we do more as WLG to press for this? Left Foot
Forward has produced a pamphlet
arguing that inequality should be a serious issue for the next Labour
Government. A close-up view of what austerity means on a Greek island is
provided here
and Noam Chomsky argues that Israel and the US are the greatest threat to peace
in the Middle East here.

Labour Party

Here is the UK Labour Party website
with all the recent Party statements and a special one on recruiting new
members.

Here are two
links with draft left motions for the 2012 national conference - here
from LRC and here
from Left Futures. If any of you are successful in getting these through your
branch or constituency please could you let us know so we can report on
progress through this email and the blog.

Here is the Welsh Labour
website, which still needs keeping up to date; all constituencies have recently
had a circular from Carl Sargeant about the importance of the Police
Commissioners elections. We are all urged to Contact
Welsh Labour on wales@labour.org.uk or by contacting our local constituency party secretary to find out how
we can help.

Darren circulated, and
commented on, a short discussion paper that sought to reaffirm WLG’s political
principles and set out some priorities for the coming months (this follows in
the discussion section below, together with some other contributions). The idea
was to stimulate some discussion and thereby better inform the decisions that
would need to be made at the AGM.

We are socialists in the Labour party

·We
believe in the possibility of an alternative that is more equal, democratic and
sustainable, where the economy is driven by need not profit and people have
control over their own lives

·We’re
committed to working within Labour because we believe that it is the only party
capable of representing the interests of ordinary people at the level of
(British) government

Labour government – at all levels –
should be about transformation, not management

·Winning
elections is a means to an end, not an end in itself

·The
worst Labour government is better than the best Tory government – but a Labour
government that simply wants its turn to operate the status quo is not worth
having

·Our
responsibility is to do more than get Labour candidates elected and to defend
those who have been elected – we should be scrutinising their work, holding
them to account and actively lobbying for the policies we think they should be
carrying out (& for openness/engagement with citizens)

·As
an organised left, we have to challenge those in Labour who subordinate social
& political change to electoral expediency, or who deny the need for change
altogether

Austerity isn’t working anywhere

·Cuts
are a political choice not an economic necessity

·Political
& economic elites are applying the ‘shock doctrine’ – using the crisis to
restructure economy & society in the interests of the rich

·Official
Labour policy is ‘austerity lite’ – not good enough

·Credible
alternative policies – and demolitions of Con-Dem policy – have been set out
clearly & repeatedly – e.g. TUC, PCS, Compass, M. Drakeford etc- we should do more to publicise and argue
for these alternatives

·Anti-cuts
movement needs a principled but constructive voice

Our allegiance is to working people,
the poor and the oppressed everywhere

·We
stand for international solidarity, not putting Britain (or Wales) first

·We
have to defend those scapegoated by the right – benefit claimants, economic
migrants, asylum seekers, etc

·We
should promote (& where possible, organise) practical solidarity with
people in Greece & elsewhere

·We
have to defend it from austerity & from innovations that undermine its
accomplishments

We’ll never have socialism without
democracy

·Labour
hasn’t broken the anti-democratic habits it acquired in the Blair years

·We’ve
had warm words but – virtually no appreciable change to ‘Partnership in Power’
regime

We
still have control-freakery over selections etcUnions can be part of the
problem – most of them need democratic reform too.The following comment for the discussion was too long to go in the 'comments' section so is added here:

A response stimulated
by Darren’s draft ‘where we stand’: a number of questions – Len Arthur

Darren
has started to produce a list of basic tenets that try to define and describe what for
WLG being ‘left of centre’ may mean. In the earlier blogs, and possibly in a more
abstract manner, I’ve attempted to sketch out issues and processes that the
left in the UK should be engaging with. Perhaps, behind both initiatives, is an
understanding that we appear to be living through times where the domination –
hegemony – of the neo-liberal paradigm of ever freer markets is beginning to
unravel under the evidence of its own contradictions. At the same time, the
ruling class is fast running out of options to manage these contradictions, and
is increasingly reliant on printing money and attacking the working class in
every conceivable way: they face the potentially fatal contradiction of
destroying both the economy and society at the same time.

Now, this
narrative could be wrong: perhaps the system will muddle through and the crisis
and history will continue unperturbed. First question: what do we think about
this, as left of centre socialists in the Labour Party? Can we muddle along
with piecemeal reforms or do we seriously, and quickly, need to address how we
challenging the power of the ruling class?

WLG has been very successful in pulling together members of
the Labour Party from a wide range of left traditions. Meetings have allowed
speakers to go beyond their usual LP script and discussions have been open and
creative, certainly helping members to cope with the general absence of this
level of debate in the official LP organisation. Building WLG has been aided by
evidence of a coherent trajectory of ‘clear red water’ in the policies of Welsh
Government Labour administrations - up until recently, a period that also
experienced increased public spending. In a sense these two factors provided a
‘comfort zone’, enabling the wide range of left traditions within the LP to
work together with a large measure of civility.

Changing
gear, to place emphasis on a wider challenge to the power of capital, will mean
linking action with the outcomes of discussions. It will mean that the outcome
of discussions might not be as comfortable, as the issue will constantly arise
about what are the conclusions? To what extent can they be seen to be socialist
and the challenge transgressive? What, and when, will be the action that WLG
members will take as a consequence? Those members who hold office in various
organisations could find their actions being challenged and, as a consequence,
have to think their actions through very carefully with other WLG members.

For all of
us as LP members, defensive direct action, and actions that are transgressive,
will involve engagement and coordination with people who are not members, and
are possibly to the left of the LP. So how do we balance working within the LP
with the need work and act with other who are not?

The
statements listed by Darren start the process of linking a position with
consequent action. I would argue that we need to initiate a process that links
issue analysis, position, policy and subsequent review. For example, Darren
mentions a list of possible plan ‘B’ economic alternatives. I suggested in the
two discussion pieces on the economy, that the evidence of a Marxist
understanding of the current economic crisis is increasingly compelling. What
role should such an analysis play in developing a plan ‘B’?

Coordinating
left motions for conferences can itself be daunting. It is, however, the easy
bit when compared the type of decisions faced by councillors, trade union
officers and others in a situation of financial cuts, or where it is difficult
to mobilise the power of members. Should we try to establish ‘lines in the
sand’ that no socialist councillor should cross, such as never supporting
compulsory redundancies? Should we specifically help WLG members faced with
these difficult situations by arranging specific and open discussions about how
we should respond before a decision is taken? How do we cope with Labour group
discipline and decisions to break the whip? Would it help if those in WLG who
are trade union officers engage in similar discussions? If there is a
continuation or unity between action and theory, then increasingly if the
tension becomes too much it creates problems for other socialists in defending
the outcomes. Should it be an issue for WLG to avoid this if at all possible?

Finally for
us in Wales there is the Welsh Government. Could it be doing more to sustain
‘clear red water’ despite the minority and financial position it finds itself
in? There is a consultation out on the NHS, does this provide us with an
opportunity to respond and develop our thinking in this regard? As in the
previous blogs, I would suggest looking for transitional actions and demands.

The
questions are difficult and there are no easy answers, but in my way I’m
suggesting that the current economic and political situation requires WLG to
move out of its current ‘comfort zone’. With quite a number of tweaks, I
support the list and the direction in which Darren is proposing we move, but
I’m also suggesting that if the current crisis of capitalism requires this
shift of gear, then it requires a more substantial one and I’ve suggested some
questions that we may need to ask ourselves if we agree to go down that road.
Finally, a practical way to take the discussion forward might be to start at
the other end, taking issues or areas of activity - such as being councillors
or the NHS consultation mentioned above - and exploring how alternative demands
and actions can be specifically developed.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The views expressed in this email and
blog are those of the individuals whose name is attached to the posting. They
do not represent a collective position of the WLG or the Labour Party.

Dear Comrade

This is the
fourth of our (just about) weekly email and blogs and thanks for the comments
on the first three. The blog is still in an experimental stage so bear with us if we have
some technical problems or we have bored the pants off you. Don’t forget, if
you have any information and you think it is the sort of thing that would fit
the ethos of the blog and email, send it to us to circulate and post; if you
wish to comment please feel free to do so on the blog; and if you are a WLG
member, please submit posts.

Next Welsh Labour Grassroots meeting
and other forthcoming events

The next WLG
meeting will take place on Saturday 8th September at Newport Centre, Kingsway,
Newport NP20 1UH, between 11.00 am and 1.00 pm. John Griffiths, AM for Newport
East and Welsh Environment minister, will be talking to us about recent
developments at the Assembly and the challenges facing Welsh Labour over the
coming months. We will also have a discussion about our political priorities,
ahead of our AGM. The latter will be taking place at the Welsh Institute of
Sport, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Saturday, 27th October. Further details will
follow soon.

Billy Bragg
is bringing Woody Guthrie’s songs back to life at Treorchy’s Park & Dare
Theatre on 12th September – 08000147111 to book.

On Friday
14th September, Llandaff Branch Labour Party will be holding a fundraising Barbeque
at 6 Heol Harlech, Llandaff, Cardiff CF5 2HX from 7.00pm. Tickets are £5 a
head - ring or email Greg Owens on 02920 567676 or g.j.owens@btinternet.com
to book your place. There will be a bar and raffle.

On Thursday,
4th October, the PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, will be giving the S.O.
Davies Memorial Lecture, organised by Merthyr Tydfil Trades Council, at 7.00 pm
at Canolfan Soar, Pontmorlais, Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8UB (300 yards from bus and
rail stations). There will also be refreshments, live music and a photographic
display. Tickets are £2 from Margaret Davies, tel: 07989 791179.

Left Week – Len Arthur

Two bits of
news seem to sum up how far and how quickly Britain has become a twisted and
inhuman place under the Tories. First, the spectacle of the English education
secretary being pleased that the average GCSE results are worse than last year,
and now having to admit that pupils have been treated
unfairly but not being prepared to do anything about it. Second, ATOS - the
organisation that takes a profit from denying the disabled benefits - being a
sponsor of the Paralympics; it was tremendous to see Disabled People Against
the Cuts (DPAC) exposing this travesty by demonstrating in Cardiff and London.Red
Pepper has an excellent article countering the main myths about
welfare peddled by the likes of the Daily
Mail.

Then the
week ended with the attack on London Metropolitan University, which will be the
start of attacks on other universities not suited to the rich, through the
twisted avenue of appearing to do something about immigration. Please support
the university and sign the petition here.

Left Roundup

Two useful
conference videos became available this week. There is a lot to look at but
they can be speeded up. It makes a change from acres of text. The first is from
the European Left conference in Brussels in May and the second is
this year’s Marxism conference. A comrade from Portugal has also
referred me to this excellent site based, I think, in Cataluña with a
collection of videos and photos documenting the aftermath of the crisis.

Left Unity
has been the subject of some discussion since David Hind did a piece for Al Jazeera which led to this reply by Richard Seymour aka ‘Lenin’s Tomb’.
Quite a number of socialists in Wales have raised these issues, so perhaps it
would form a good basis for our discussion piece next week?

Michael
Roberts continues to produce sound left analysis on the economy and recently has critiqued the weakness of qualitative easing (printing
money) as the main policy of the US, UK and EU.

Left Eye? - Private Eye can be questionable but
remains an excellent source of information if you care to dig past the remnants
of public school humour. Their articles are not available on the internet but
in the latest edition they include:

-Contrasting Osborne’s writing off
£550m of revenue by scrapping the planned rise in road-fuel duty with the
Tories’ rail fare rise of RPI+3%.

-Evidence from the Care Quality
Commission reports that demonstrate that private-equity companies are the worst
offenders in running poor care homes.

-Asil Nadir will now spend some
considerable time at HM pleasure following his conviction for theft of millions
from investors. Recently, the Tory Party promised that, if he was convicted, they
would pay back the £440,000 he gave them between 1985 and 1990. Of course, they
are now refusing to do so.

Finally,
further evidence that we should be very careful of the BBC’s reporting on
Israel, which is trying to ignore the existence of Palestinians, as can be seen
from the way this interview with Ken Loach was edited. I remember Edward Said making the same point when he spoke in Cardiff some 15 years
ago – the most effective way of challenging resistance is to deny it exists.

Labour Party

Here is the UK Labour Party website with
all the recent Party statements and a special one on recruiting new members.

Here are two
links with draft left motions for the 2012 national conference - here from LRC and here from Left Futures. If any of you are
successful in getting these through your branch or constituency please could
you let us know so we can report on progress through this email and the blog.

Here is the Welsh Labour website,
which still needs keeping up to date; all constituencies have recently had a
circular from Carl Sargeant about the importance of the Police Commissioners
elections. We are all urged to Contact Welsh Labour on
wales@labour.org.uk or by contacting
our local constituency party secretary to find out how we can help.

Fightback

20 October
must be in every member’s diary to get themselves, family, friends, brothers,
sisters, comrades up to London for the TUC ‘A Future That Works’ demonstration.
Everyone who wishes to see an end to this Tory government should attend and
False Economy have details of transport here. Here also is a link to the Coalition of
Resistance leaflets and posters supporting the demonstration.